1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus for improving the safety while a vehicle is traveling.
2. Related Art
In recent years, vehicles have come to provide functions aimed at operations other than driving. For instance, various vehicle-mounted equipment, such as a car navigation system and an audio device, is installed at the driver seat of a vehicle. In order to operate the vehicle-mounted equipment while traveling, the driver moves his or her line of sight from the direction of travel of the vehicle to the equipment in question. Therefore, in order to guarantee safety while the vehicle is traveling, technology has been proposed which makes it impossible to perform an input operation to the navigation system and the like, while the vehicle is traveling. However, if it is completely impossible to carry out an input operation to the car navigation system and the like, then there is a problem in that the driver cannot change the destination or route while traveling, and hence convenience is impaired.
Therefore, technology has been developed which enables a driver to carry out input operations to equipment during travel, while ensuring safety during travel. For instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H8-184449 discloses technology which disables operation of the display of a car navigation apparatus by the driver while the vehicle is traveling. In other words, a detector which detects whether or not the vehicle is traveling and a detection sensor which detects an operation by the driver and an operation by a fellow passenger, are provided. If the vehicle is not traveling, then operation of the display is enabled, whereas if the vehicle is traveling, then operation is disabled if the operator of the display is the driver, and operation is enabled if the operation of the display is the fellow passenger.
In this way, by enabling operation even during travel, if the operation is performed by a person other than the driver, then it is possible to reduce inconvenience while ensuring safety. However, if there is no fellow passenger, for example, then it remains impossible to perform an input operation to the car navigation system, or the like, while the vehicle is traveling. Furthermore, since it is necessary to determine whether the operator is the driver or a fellow passenger, then a complex mechanism is required. Moreover, if the detector identifies the operator incorrectly, then safety cannot be ensured.